Cooking devices used for camping and other outdoor activities are well known in the art. For example, The Coleman Company, Inc. of Wichita, Kans. has been manufacturing portable cooking stoves for many years. Such portable cooking stoves include, for example, one or two burners supplied with propane by an attachable tank. Such a portable stove provides direct flame impingement on the cooking surface placed on the burner, generally a pot or skillet. Direct flame impingement does not present a problem in this circumstance as the pot or skillet is designed to withstand the heat from the flames. Even pots or skillets that include a non-stick coating on the cooking surface, such as TEFLON® manufactured by DuPont of Delaware, can be used with the portable stove as the underside of the pot or skillet is untreated metal that can withstand the direct flame impingement, whereas a non-stick surface could not withstand the high temperature from direct flame impingement. In addition, portable stoves generally do not provide a cooking surface and if a cooking surface is provided, the cooking surface is often treated with a non-stick coating and thus cannot be reversible as the underside would then have a non-stick coating that would be damaged from the heat.
Another type of portable cooking device is a barbecue grill, whether fueled by charcoal, natural gas or propane. While a barbecue is often portable, it is not suitable for use indoors due to safety reasons and size limitations. Further, the cooking surface for a barbecue grill is generally a metal grill that provides sufficient support for the food to be cooked while allowing the heat from the charcoal or burners to pass directly through the grill to cook the food. Barbecue grills generally do not provide a solid cooking surface such as griddle surface.
There do exist reversible cooking surfaces, such as a cast iron griddle manufactured by the Lodge Manufacturing Company that provides a cast iron plate that can be placed over a heat source such as flames from a campfire, either side of the cast iron plate providing a cooking surface such as a flat surface on one side and a grooved surface on another side. Such a plate, however, cannot have a non-stick coating on both sides of the griddle that would be exposed to high temperatures.
A popular cooking surface that is not suitable for portable or outdoor use is an electric griddle. An electric griddle usually includes a non-stick cooking surface that is heated on its underside by an electrically heated coil. Such an electric griddle requires a source of alternating current electrical power that is often not available for convenient portable or outdoor use, such as when camping or hiking.
Thus, it is desirable to have a portable cooking system that provides two non-stick cooking surfaces.